The Hub

News, Notes, Talk

Anne Trubek, founder of Belt Publishing, raised $6,000 for Afghan refugees in one day.

With a spontaneous series of tweets on Sunday, Anne Trubek of Belt Publishing raised $6,000 to help ten Afghans apply for humanitarian parole. The effort began when Trubek contacted the nonprofit Global Cleveland to ask how she could assist with Read more >

By Corinne Segal

A close reading of the new name for the Pfizer vaccine.

In case you get all your breaking news from Lit Hub, I’m pleased to be the first to tell you that the FDA has granted full approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which will henceforth be known as… Comirnaty (koe-mir’-na-tee). At Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Here's Benedict Cumberbatch reading Kurt Vonnegut’s advice to the people of 2088.

In a 1988 Volkswagen ad campaign for TIME, of all places, Kurt Vonnegut wrote a letter to the people of 2088. In it, he reflected on the current moment, imagined the next century (apparently, everyone will “sip orange drink through Read more >

By Walker Caplan

“Ask certain questions and decline to answer them.” George Saunders on the job of a short story.

In his new short story “The Mom of Bold Action,” published in the coming issue of The New Yorker, George Saunders both satirizes and humanizes (what’s the difference, if the satire is good?) a mother who, after her son is Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Want to be a bookseller? This chicken-coop-turned-bookstore is up for grabs.

Big news for booksellers, or even aspiring booksellers: The Times Union has reported that Owl Pen Books, a bookstore nestled in the hills of Washington County, is for sale, along with its 40,000 titles. As perhaps hinted by its location, Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Every book featured in HBO's hit satire The White Lotus.

On Sunday the 15th, the season one finale of HBO’s comedy-drama The White Lotus aired. The six-episode series, helmed by showrunner Mike White (Enlightened), chronicles a week in the life of a group of guests and staff at a tropical resort Read more >

By Vanessa Willoughby

This new children’s literature museum is inspired by Kiki’s Delivery Service.

Calling all Miyazaki fans: a new hilltop children’s literature museum in Edogawa City, designed by Kengo Kuma and Associates, is inspired by the works of Eiko Kadono, the author of Kiki’s Delivery Service (known to many as the source material Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Read a previously unpublished Ursula K. Le Guin poem.

Here’s some relaxing reading for this Friday afternoon: in an online feature in TriQuarterly Mag, writer Jacqueline Dougan Jackson recalls her experience meeting Ursula K. Le Guin when Le Guin came to teach at Beloit University, involving a humorous prank Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Here are the best reviewed books of the week.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Velvet Was the Night, Jaime Cortez’s Gordo, Billie Jean King’s All In, and Frances Wilson’s Burning Man all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. Brought to you by Book Marks, Lit Hub’s “Rotten Tomatoes for Read more >

By Book Marks

Federico García Lorca predicted his own death in a poem.

Eighty-five years ago today, on August 19th, 1936, Federico García Lorca—the Spanish avant-garde poet, playwright, and ardent socialist—was shot and killed by Nationalist militia before being buried in an unmarked mass grave somewhere outside Granada, where he remains to this day. Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

What to read next based on your quarantine hobby.

Remember the beginning of quarantine, when everyone wanted to make sourdough but there was no flour to be found anywhere? What hobby did you pick up to pass the time? Personally, I was super committed to learning French on Duolingo Read more >

By Katie Yee

Walter Mosley is writing a new The Thing series for Marvel.

Another acclaimed novelist is getting into the Marvel business. Like Ta-Nehisi Coates and Benjamin Percy before him, Walter Mosley, who is primarily known for his mystery and crime fiction but who has written across multiple genres, including science fiction and Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

The new Foundation trailer is serving epic fashion and a power-hungry Lee Pace.

If you’ve been waiting for a new trailer for the highly anticipated adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy, you’re in luck. The official Apple TV+ trailer, which dropped today, features Jared Harris as Dr. Hari Seldon and Lee Pace as Read more >

By Vanessa Willoughby

The Satanic Temple is awarding scholarships to “devil’s advocates.”

The Satanic Temple—whose function should be obvious from its name, but in case you need an explainer, it’s a religious organization that “encourage[s] benevolence and empathy, reject[s] tyrannical authority, advocate[s] practical common sense, oppose[s] injustice, and undertake[s] noble pursuits”—has a Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Two members of PEN International have been murdered by the Taliban.

In a statement on Tuesday, PEN America called for the United States to act swiftly to offer protection to writers, journalists, and cultural figures in Afghanistan—as they face immediate danger from the Taliban, which is quickly overtaking the country. Earlier Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Who should star in the new TV adaptation of The English Patient?

There are people (cowards, philistines, general haters) who now roll their eyes when I talk about how much I love The English Patient—Anthony Minghella’s lush, multi-Oscar-winning 1996 adaptation of Michael Ondaatje’s Booker Prize-winning 1992 novel. They think it’s overlong, painfully Read more >

By Dan Sheehan